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Friday, October 7, 2011

Who Died and Made you King?

“There’s a girl on the streets with her hands in her pockets and tear stains on her cheeks, but no one stopped to help her up when she was falling. So wrapped up in their own prison were they, looking for any cracks. She walked past, a ghost of her formal self, a wisp of smoke with a tied on mask and a forced smile. She spent her days building walls for others to tear down. Don’t you know that walls aren’t bridges? The voices of other kids taunt her, planting weeds in her heart. The mean things said by kids more insecure then her, have choked the life out of her tiny frame. They could one day help tie the noose.”

Something I hate more then most anything is judgment. What’s worst is that it’s the one thing I cannot seem to break free from. I am guilty of this thing that tears me up inside. The statement, “I hope they get what they deserve,” seems so shallow to me. I mean don’t we deserve death? Don’t we all deserve the pain we face daily? Don’t we all deserve the demons that plague us? Yet we want others to be sympathetic to our pain and condemn those who are different from us. So what we really mean to say is, “I hope they get what I deserve.”

When I think about it in this way it really makes me stop. I try so hard to hide myself behind my mask and make sure no one else ever finds out how horrible I am, yet I throw out things like the sayings above. When someone is having the worst day of their lives, I turn to my friend and say, “They are just getting what they deserve.” This seems so bizarre to me. Who could wish their own punishment on someone else? The answer is, I do. The answer is, you do too.

Another thing about judging people that absolutely blows my mind is commenting on someones appearance. Who made me the judge of beauty? Think about it this way, you had too cookies and one looks to the other and goes, ‘I taste better’. They were both made by the same person, and cooked in the same oven at the same time. So it’s really not a true statement. Not only that but the cookie would have had to eat a bit of the other cookie, rendering it a cannibalistic snack, which is just gross.

God is the perfect creator. He is the inventor of beauty. So when you look at someone and whisper those thoughts in your head you are criticizing something that God made. The same thing goes for thinking the other person is better then you. Who gave you the right to put yourself more beautiful or more ugly then something created. Your equal. Different people, but equal in God’s eyes.

So I come to tell you I struggle with judging other people in both a high and a low light. I either make myself a god in comparison, or make them a god in another. This isn’t my job. These people around the world are God’s creations. A writer named Chad Eastman once wrote that the way we live is like a bunch of people holding mirrors in front of their faces. Looking at your life in that mirror head on is scary cause you can see all you have done. But nobody else can see into your mirror the way you do, and visa-verse. Not only is walking with your head sideways dangerous, but it won’t get you anywhere.

But how do we stop ourselves from entertaining these thoughts? By holding every single one of them captive. When you have a negative thought pop in your head, address it directly. Identify the lie it holds and then pray it away. This is easier said then done, believe me I would know, but it is guaranteed to work. My personal challenge this week is to not judge. I’ll let you know how it goes (: